Barry Petchesky

A man who claims he was shot by Marvin Harrison last year was shot again. That's a nebulous sports connection, but you better believe it was on ESPN.com's front page today.

Dwight Dixon was shot seven times in broad daylight this morning in North Philly, 15 months after a dispute at Marvin Harrison's bar led to...something. There are no suspects yet, though Dixon told a police officer on the scene that he thought Harrison hired someone to take him out.

Facts are few (much fewer than in the Roethlisberger case) but there it was, among the top headlines on ESPN.com this afternoon. The company policy excuses don't fly, as there was no criminal case brought in last year's shooting. Ironically, there is a civil case pending.

Advertisement

It's only right that ESPN cover Dixon's second shooting. Rightly or wrongly, he's linked with Harrison, and this is news. ESPN made the story their own, with some incredible reporting by Shaun Assael and Peter Keating, and it's in their best interests to follow up.

It might be the most unfair thing in the world to report this story in a sports context. What happened last year may have absolutely nothing to do with this. But this is news, because it's being reported. That might seems a tautology, but when the media comes to a consensus on something, there's no stopping it. And ESPN isn't so big that their abstention can keep something from being news.